America has a money crisis. Yes things are tight for governments now, things are tight for most families also. In the real world where the ability to borrow money is limited and heavy debt carries a heavy cost, most will do the right thing and live within their means.

This means cutting spending and altering your lifestyle to your ability to pay for it. Government feels it has an ace in the hole by their ability to tax. And tax they do! They sometimes justify taxes by stating public health will improve as they have done with tobacco.

Smokers have a story to tell you about your future. It is a tale of taxes and control. It is all for your own good you know. The more control government takes over our daily lives the more control it needs to supposedly cut costs and prevent unpleasant outcomes. It is a vicious circle and our friends in government know it.

It takes imagination to come up with all these different taxes and ideas for taxes. It makes one wonder if politicians put as much energy into effectively running the government as they do taxing and spending what would things be like?

The ultimate goal with taxation is to gain control of behavior, especially with so called sin taxes. Sin taxes are not for the purpose of encouraging righteousness, it is to protect big government and the people who depend on it by funding it. But there is a point of diminishing returns, where the level of taxation encourages illegal activities.

On cigarettes for example 22 states now tax at a rate greater than the actual retail price of cigarettes before taxes (about $1.50 a pack). That is buying it once from the retailer and the manufacturer and buying it again for the tax man. Three states tax at a rate where you buy it once and pay the tax man twice!

America, do you want this to be your future? Out of control government will force actions like this on almost everyone because the bills will come due soon and the need to pay for it somehow will be great. Cut spending now and bring back control of the current insanity. The edge of the cliff will be coming up soon, step on the brakes!

Sky high taxes will not be just for smokers anymore, but for everyone.